At least 30 Grassmarket venues say repeated outages have cost them thousands in Christmas trade, leaving staff and customers frustrated.
Businesses in Edinburgh’s Old Town say they have been “crippled” by power cuts in the the Grassmarket — one of the city’s busiest nightlife and hospitality hubs — with engineers scrambling to fix the problem just hours before Hogmanay.
At least 30 restaurants and bars have hit out after lost trade over Christmas, with pub owners warning that the repeated blackouts are driving customers away at the busiest time of year.
SP Energy Networks confirmed it was dealing with intermittent issues in the area and said engineers were working “to resolve the problem as quickly as possible”.
Pub owners say the issue has been ongoing since 2021 and have have shared a letter with the BBC written to SP Energy Networks’ chief executive, copying in City of Edinburgh Council and local MSP Angus Robertson, to express “deep concern” over the recurring outages.
The letter states: “While we appreciate SP Energy Networks’ apologies, the recurring nature of these outages points to systemic vulnerabilities that require urgent and permanent solutions. The current reactive approach is insufficient to safeguard businesses and customers in this critical hospitality district.”
Some venues have faced power cuts multiple times a day, leaving Friday night and Saturday lunchtime services completely lost over one festive weekend — costing thousands of pounds in revenue.
“Meanwhile, business costs remain. Staff must still be paid, food is wasted, and bookings are lost,” the letter adds, highlighting the frustration of owners trying to operate during the holiday season.
A spokesperson for SP Energy Networks said: “We’re experiencing intermittent issues with the power supply to the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh and would like to reassure all customers and businesses that we’re doing our utmost to resolve the issue as soon as possible ahead of Hogmanay celebrations starting later.
“Yesterday’s faults were the result of Low Voltage protection fuse operation due to an intermittent fault being defected, which saw customers off for an hour in the afternoon, approx. 3pm-5pm, and again from 6pm-8pm. We fully recognise the impact this will have caused at such a busy time of year, and we apologise for the inconvenience. Power tripped again midmorning today and we’re currently on site and working to resolve this as soon as possible.
“Our staff are going door to door in the Grassmarket to reassure customers that we’re doing our utmost to ensure there are no further disruptions today. We’ll also have additional staff on standby tonight across the Bells and into the early hours. We’re happy to meet with any groups affected in the new year to discuss our investment plans to strengthen the network and lessen any disruption going forward.”
